Various types of content are provided with Web pages. Therefore, it is desired that content that suits users' preferences be selected and suitably provided. For this purpose, it is desired to understand content or keywords that match users' preferences. Further, in the case of providing the same content, it is desired to design a Web page that matches users' preferences.
Therefore, a technique is known that measures the state of actually viewing content on a client and calculates the rate of use of the content. (See, for example, International Publication Pamphlet No. WO 2004/097654.) This calculates the rate of use of content based on the size of the Web browser of the client, the size of the content, and the number of clicks on the client. Alternatively, the rate of use of content is calculated based on the amount of operation of a scroll bar on the Web browser of the client and the size of the Web browser.
Further, a technique is known that obtains a text on which a particular operation has been performed from where the particular operation has been performed in Web content displayed by a Web browser. (See, for example, Japanese Laid-open Patent Publication No. 2001-188792.) According to this technique, the obtained text is transmitted to another system that uses the text. Then, for example, a system that conducts a Web viewer rating survey or a search engine receives this obtained text and uses the obtained text to provide information on what users have been interested in.
Further, a technique is known that determines an area displayed by a user or a region in a page on the World Wide Web traced with a mouse by the user and extracts text information included in the area or region as a search (retrieval) key when the user is viewing the Web page. (See, for example, Japanese Laid-open Patent Publication No. 2004-348241.) This extracted text information is transmitted to an information processing server. The information processing server searches advertisements using information received from a noticed text extracting part and the user preference information prestored in a preference information database, and creates a page for displaying an advertisement using the results of the search. The created page for displaying an advertisement is transmitted to the advertisement display part of an advertisement display browser, and an advertisement is displayed.
Further, a technique is known that records keywords viewed by a user (user keywords) from the contents viewed by the user. (See, for example, Japanese Laid-open Patent Publication No. 2003-308339.) According to this technique, the evaluation points of user keywords are stored in a keyword database on a user keyword basis, and contents are displayed on the computer terminals of individual users in descending order of evaluation points based on the evaluation points of the user keywords in the keyword database.